Delayed!

Sorry for the late post. Since this is not an entirely D&D related page, I will take this opportunity to talk about a game in development that me and a couple of my friends have been tracking. The game is Darkfall Online and there are few games that have similarly been able to catch my interest as of late.

Darkfall proposes to be a game that immerses the players in what they refer to as "gameplay realism". They claim to be able to deliver more character customization, and more gameplay freedom, than any other game I've seen on the market. From the research I have been able to do on the game thus far, it seems as though it has been in development for almost 7 years now. This is taking into account that it started in 2001, and was scheduled to be in Beta in 2003, which then was scrapped, and the game was bumped up a couple notches in terms of the scope of features they were planning on delivering. In short, Darkfall has been in development for longer than almost any other MMO I can imagine to date.

So is this a good thing or a bad thing?

I personally think it's a great thing. While long development times can be a taxing investment, and devastating to the patience of potential players, this game has managed to be in development for almost the entire span of 3D MMO's. I just want to point out, that people on this development team have some know how, and they're ready to do things differently. You can already tell that even though this is a PvP based game, the developers are really going to strive to keep it balanced. And balance in Darkfall is not going to be the same as balance in World of Warcraft.

You will often find me using World of Warcraft as my MMO comparison, simply because I've played the game for almost 3 years, and it's also the most popular MMO I've ever experienced. My point about balance in WoW vs the balance in Darkfall is that if something that you know and love, and are highly skill in, becomes "balanced" in Darkfall, you won't have to roll a new character. If you love to use your bow all day, and it gets nerfed in favor of buffing thrown weapons, simply train thrown weapons! Or pick up another support skill to give yourself an even deadlier combination! When they talk about player skill, I truly believe they are talking about more than just the number associated with your character's skills. They really want the person behind the avatar to have some skills.

That sums up my first thoughts on the game, although I may revisit some more concepts next Tuesday. Look forward to a full on review once it gets released and I own it.